Reviews & features: Comedy

Michael McIntyre

Michael McIntyre has the look of someone your mother would like. Unashamedly middle class in his dress, mannerisms and speech, it’s easy to see why he is being heralded as the latest thing in ‘posh comedy’. In terms of demeanour and delivery, McIntyre…

Jimmy Carr

With his short sharp shocks, Jimmy Carr has outraged and amused audiences around the world. He tells Brian Donaldson why no one has the right to be hurt by a bit of wordplay

Hitlist - the best Fringe comedy

Stewart Lee Still surfing on his own wave of post-Springer glory, the 41st Best Stand-Up Ever delivers a routine would rocket him further up that chart if they had another poll today. Hilarious and confrontational. UdderBELLY’s Pasture, 0870 745 3083…

Different strokes

Having written one of the UK’s finest ever sitcoms, Sean Lock is back pounding the beat on the stand-up stage. Brian Donaldson talks to the man who has finally left bitterness behind

Cambridge Impronauts present 2012: An Improv Oddessy

Enthusiastic but rehearsed improv

Of the glut of improv the 2012 Fringe has brought in, the Cambridge Impronauts’ bright blue boiler suits promised a well-organised stint of audience participation and laughs. The Oxbridge colleges (and Edinburgh’s own university) appear to revel in the…

Asher Treleaven: Troubadour

The Aussie comedian amiably breaks his life down into six parts

It’s a question you wish more stand ups would ask before embarking on a 30 date Festival run: ‘is my life actually interesting enough to talk about for a whole hour?’. Of course by posing this query at the start of his show Asher Treleaven sets himself…

DeAnne Smith: Livin’ The Sweet Life

Routinely adorable, impish comedy

It’s taken Montréaler DeAnne Smith only a few years to achieve what many circuit veterans never come close to. With her trusty ukulele and sweetened yet ribald observations on sex and life, she struck gold at the Sydney Comedy Festival, prompting…

The Boy With Tape On His Face - More Tape

Comedy that sticks: an equally formidable collection of games, gags and gambits

Have you been following @tapefaceboy over the last couple of years? If not, you’re probably one of the few who hasn’t. TV appearances, newspaper interviews and comedy awards have saturated the blogosphere with duct tape-based hashtags and propelled Sam…

Jonny & The Baptists

Enthusiastic comedy blues, whole-heartedly committed to political satire

Ex-Roaring Boys frontman Jonny Donahoe has enjoyed well-heeled success at previous festivals, and landed at the Fringe 2010 with the kind of dynamism required to prosper in a double act. He transfers the same wild, raw energy to his new trio…

Tom Stade Totally Rocks!

Lavishly furnished routine from master of hardcore comedy

It’s certainly worth doing your research before travelling to a Tom Stade show, as he won’t be for everyone. Comedy audiences may well have seen watered down versions of the Canadian’s stand-up on TV, when censors request that he keep the hardcore sex…

Künt and the Gang - Free

Against the odds, a stream of filth can only stretch so far

Word of mouth has certainly worked for Künt and the Gang. Stewart Lee and various amused Facebook and YouTube proponents are among those who have been banging the drum and the tightly spaced seating here just about coped. The first thing of note is that…

Ta Daaa!

Clowns with magic skills that are no joke

It takes a few minutes to really get the measure of Frehd Astarr and Tim Eee Presley, but once you do, you want them for your best friends. Claiming to be aged eight and ten respectively, Frehd and Tim are dressed in full clown regalia, including big…

Fran Moulds: Significant Human Error

Multi-character yawn from a spirited performer

Fran Moulds is the latest in a series of female character comedians who have laid on a feast of Fringe creations in recent years with one thing in common: their shows have all been extremely high on intricate character detail but decidedly low on…

Trevor Browne - I Think... I Am

Barnstormingly bad character creation

From horrible start to dreadful finish, I Think... I Am is just god-awful wrong. Hamming up the role of a former folk-rock god who is trying to reclaim his previous glory, Browne treats us to some pre-show ‘entertainment’ which has us paying heed to…

Scientist Turned Comedian - Tim Lee

A lazy lecture on pointless PowerPoint

Chatting about molecular bonds, rule matrices and scalar/vectors is certainly one way to avoid attracting a boorish comedy crowd. But if the sciencey boffins who have been flocking to attend Tim Lee’s debut Fringe hour assume that all stand-up shows are…

The Harri-Parris - The Leaving Do

Cake-filled musical hour about leaving it all behind

Anni Harri-Parri is about to leave behind forever the Welsh farm she grew up in and head to the big London smoke for a new life away from her doting family and friends. The audience are the guests for her surprise leaving do (cake is handed round) and…

Luke and Harry's Dot Dot Dot

Shock tactics sideline the sketch laughs

When you are just two guys doing a series of sketches with no props or a set to speak of, those routines live or collapse on the quality of writing with weight of performance coming a close second. Jonny Sweet and Joe Thomas managed it to gloriously…

The Dog-eared Collective

Brave, bonkers but too often a bit bland

If effort equalled quality then the Dog-Eared Collective gang would be on a bullet train to glory by now. Formed seven years ago, it seems unclear quite where they’re headed, but if the quartet (three women and one bloke with long hair) are content to…

Scottish Comedian of the Year 2011 - Jamie Dalgleish

Lacklustre Fringe debut hopefully hides real talents

The current Scottish Comedian of the Year has a wide-eyed enthusiasm for his work that has to be admired, but judging by this short appearance (it’s not really a ‘show’ as such), Jamie Dalgleish clearly has quite a way to go before emulating the…

Ladies Live Longer - Ladylike

Charismatic if clumsy sketch outing

Two performers with energy oozing from their fingertips, the Ladies fire through a series of skits and songs in which they appear convincingly posh one minute, and quite credibly chavvy the next. Louise Fitzgerald and Victoria Temple-Morris are the pair…

The Noise Next Door: Bring the Noise

Improv mayhem to delight the masses

For those who believe the whole ad-lib world is the lowest rung of the comedy ladder, it might be time to hang out with a Noise Next Door audience. They are virtually messianic in their acclaim of this quintet of very talented improv actors. There isn’t…

Greg Proops

Natural storyteller paints even overhashed topics a new shade of funny

Greg Proops is rambling (‘If there’s any critics in – fuck you. Why did you come on a Sunday night?’ Colour me chastised.) He finds tangents and embraces them, drawling on about the Scottish accent and his inability to understand that old chestnut: the…

Who’s Your Daddy?

Poorly presented account of Johnny O’Callaghan's bizarre true-life tale

Johnny O’Callaghan went to Africa in the pits of a deep depression in the hope that spending time there would somehow increase his chances of dying. He came back the father of a small Ugandan boy. His one-man show, starkly set and told, it feels, in…

Dana Alexander: Breaking Through

Desperately Seeking the Exit might be more fitting title for fly-by show

A theme seems to be emerging from several reviews of Dana Alexander’s 2012 Fringe show. She just doesn’t seem to adapt very well to playing in front of a small audience. Of course, it’s not ideal for any comic, but the old maxim surely must apply: ‘the…

Neil Delamere: DelaMere Mortal

Safe but solid hour of craic

With such an easy-going manner and propensity for chatty audience banter, it helps if Neil Delamere can scoop out an interesting front-row character or two. And on this occasion, he uncovers a children’s author and the son of a notable ITV newsreader in…